Kissen (Kissenna)
is the protagonist and title character, a hard-bitten veiga with red hair, a foul mouth, and a spiderweb scar from a broken curse. Talician by birth, she lost her lower right leg as a child and wears a prosthesis of briddite, steel, and leather, fighting as well as any knight. Bisexual and fiercely loyal beneath her armor of cynicism, she hunts gods because a fire god's cult murdered her family.
Inara Craier
is a sheltered twelve-year-old, the hidden daughter of the noblewoman Lady Craier. She has never left her family's estate and carries a dangerous secret: she is bonded to a god and can see people's emotions as colors.
Skediceth (Skedi)
is a small god of white lies, shaped like a cross between a hare, a deer, and a bird, able to shrink to mouse-size or grow larger. He is inexplicably bonded to Inara — neither can stray far from the other without pain — and neither remembers how the bond formed. He is charming, scheming, and terrified of dying; he longs for a shrine and worshippers of his own.
Elogast (Elo)
is a former knight-commander and war hero, King Arren's closest friend and almost-brother. Traumatized by the God War, he laid down his sword to become a baker. Kind and honorable, he is pulled back into service when the king comes calling.
King Arren
is the ruler who outlawed the gods after watching his family destroyed. He carries a secret that unravels over the course of the book — his own survival depends on the very kind of power he claims to despise.
Hseth
is the fire god of Talicia, made of flame and red hair, worshipped through burning and human sacrifice. Ever-hungry for fuel and followers, she is the rising antagonist force and Kissen's personal nemesis. Osidisen is the old sea god who once favored Kissen's family. Yatho and Telle are Kissen's adopted sisters in the city of Lesscia — Yatho a blacksmith who uses a wheelchair, Telle a Deaf archivist — and Legs is Kissen's horse.